The present invention relates to a non-contact (or contact-less) data communication means and a non-contact power transmitting means applying a magnetic resonance therein, and an apparatus and an antenna for transmitting between those, and it relates to an effective technology to be applied to an apparatus for charging mobile equipments, which mount a non-contact IC card and/or a battery therein, in contactless (inductively).
As the technology, upon which the inventors of the present invention studied, in relation to the conventional technology of the non-contact power charging system, there can be considered one having such structure as shown in FIG. 24, as one example thereof, for example.
FIG. 24 is a block diagram for showing one example of the conventional technology of a charging system through induction (i.e., without contact), and the system shown in the figure is so constructed that it includes a power transmitting apparatus 701, which is provided on a power supplier side, such as, a station of a railway or a shop, etc, and a mobile or portable terminal device 702, which is carried by a user. In the present system, the portable terminal device 702 is charged by the power transmitting apparatus 701.
The power transmitting apparatus 701 is so constructed that it includes a non-contact type processor module 713, such as, a RFID reader, etc., a non-contact type power transmitter module 712, and a power transmission controller module 711.
The portable terminal device 702 is so constructed that it includes a non-contact type processor module 723 for non-contact type process operations of the RFID, etc., a non-contact type power receiver module 722, a power receiving controller module 721 for conducting determination of charge and control, and a large capacitive storage module 720 for enabling charging at high speed.
In the structure shown in the figure, during when the user owning the portable terminal 702 executes data transmission, for conducting an electronic funds transfer, etc., between the non-contact type processor module 713, which is mounted on the power transmitting apparatus 701 provided in the station or the shop, etc., and the non-contact type processor module 723, which is mounted on the portable terminal 702, an electric power is transmitted, inductively (in the con-contact manner), from the non-contact type power transmitter module 712 to the non-contact type power receiver module 722 on the terminal side, while at the same time, on the non-contact type power receiver module 722, the electric power received is rectified to be charged into the high-speed large capacitive storage module 720, and within the power transmission controller module 711 and the power receiving controller module 721, a control is made on the inductive (non-contact) power transmission between those modules and a control is made on charging to the high-speed large capacitive storage module 720.
With such structure as was mentioned above, because of such structure that charging of a power source of the portable terminal device 702 during when communication is made between the non-contact type processor modules 713 and 723, it is possible to reduce the charging time for the portable terminal device 702, and further if the communication is made between the non-contact type processor modules 713 and 723, frequently, it is also possible to use the terminal, continuously, even if not charging the portable terminal device 702, in particular (for example, please refer the Patent Document 1).
Further, in the electric power transmission shown in FIG. 24, it is common to apply transmission through a magnetic coupling, such as, an electromagnetic induction method or a magnetic resonance method, etc., for non-contact communication and/or non-contact power transmission at a relatively short distance, such as, several centimeters or less than that. This is because strength or intensity of transmission through the electromagnetic coupling is in inverse preposition to a square of distance “r” of transmission, on the contrary to the fact that it is in inverse preposition to the distance “r” of transmission with the transmitting method through an electric or radio wave, which can be considered to be effective as other transmitting method, and for example, a term of 1/(r2) is larger than 1/r when transmission distance is less than 1 meter.
For this reason, the frequency of the radio wave to be applied in non-contact transmission for the communication and the charging is in a band from 100 kHz to 10 and several MHz, approximately, and it is common that as an antenna for use of that sending/receiving is applied such an antenna, as shown in FIG. 25, i.e., a coil-like antenna having several turns to several tens turns, for strengthening the magnetic coupling, and therefore, such a coil-like antenna, having a diameter of 4 cm is applied in the transmission of the non-contact communication and the non-contact electric power transmission to be applied in the portable terminal, as shown in FIG. 24 (for example, please refer the Non-Patent Document 1).
As other technology, upon which the inventors study, is already known that, which is described in the Non-Patent Document 2 and the Patent Document 2. In relation to this non-contact electric power transmitting system, there can be considered such structure, as shown in FIG. 26, for example.
FIG. 26 shows the structure of an example of the conventional technology of the non-contact electric power transmitting system, wherein the non-contact electric power transmitting system 730 comprises a high-frequency power source 731, in which a primary coil is made up with a power supply coil 732, being connected with the high-frequency power source 731 through a variable impedance 737, and a resonance coil 733, and a secondary coil is made up with a resonance coil 734 and a load coil 735, and further a load 736 connected with the load coil 735.
Further, with the resonance coils 733 and 734 are connected resonance capacitors 738 and 739, respectively, wherein the power supply coil 732, the resonance coils 733 734 and the load coil 735 builds up a resonance system 740. Also, as an output frequency of the high-frequency power source 731, a resonating frequency of the resonance system 740 is determined.
An impedance variable circuit 737 is made up with two (2) variable capacitors 741 and 742 and an inductor 743. The variable capacitor 741 on one side is connected with the high-frequency power source 731, in parallel with, and the other capacitor 742 is connected with the power supply coil 732, in parallel with. The inductor 743 is connected between both the variable capacitors 741 and 742. An impedance of the variable circuit 737 is changed through changing the capacities of the variable capacitors 741 and 742. This impedance variable circuit 737 is adjusted in impedance thereof, so that an input impedance of the resonance system 740 at the resonating frequency fits to impedance on the side of the high-frequency power source 731. The variable capacitors 741 and 742 are in such already-known structures, that capacities thereof are changed through driving of a rotation shaft by a motor, i.e., the motor is driven by a driving signal from a controller 744, in that structure.
High-frequency voltage is outputted at the frequency of the resonance system 740, from the high-frequency power source 731 through the variable circuit 737 to the power supply coil 732, and thereby a magnetic filed is generated in the power supply coil 732. This magnetic field is strengthened or increased through magnetic resonance by an aid of the resonance coils 733 and 734. Electric power is taken out from the increased magnetic field in vicinity of the resonance coil 734, by means of the load coil 735 while applying the electromagnetic induction therein, to be supplied to the load 736.
In this instance, if the distance between the resonance coils 733 and 734 is changed, an input impedance of the resonance system 740 is also changed. For this reason, if there is no impedance variable circuit 737, impedance matching cannot be obtained, depending on the distance between the resonance coils 733 and 734, and reflection of the electric power to the high-frequency power source 731 generates, and this lowers the transmission efficiency. Or, from other viewpoint, since the frequency fluctuates depending on the distance between the coils, at which the magnetic resonance is generated, the transmission loss comes to be large if the frequency of the magnetic resonance shifts with respect to the output frequency of the high-frequency power source 731. For this reason, it is enough to adjust the frequency of the high-frequency power source fitting to the frequency, at which the transmission loss comes to the smallest, corresponding to the distance between the coils; however, this is not common, since there is a possibility that ill influences be given upon other communication equipments if changing the transmission frequency. For this reason, the controller 744 adjusts the variable capacities 741 and 742, so that the impedance matching can be obtained, when the input impedance of the resonance system 740 fluctuates due to changing of the distance between the coils.